The Ex's

I had often toyed with the idea of creating a section devoted to my former cars, but until I sold the Alfa I didn’t have a compelling reason to do so. I spent a lot of time creating the Alfa’s section of Throttle-Steer and at this stage I was faced with either jettisoning all the content on that vehicle or finally getting off my butt and creating a "What Iused to slide" section. So, without further delay...

When I look over the following list, a couple of things come to mind. First, given that these cars (and my current vehicles) span over 30 years of ownership, I have owned remarkably few vehicles. It can take me a long time to decide on a car, but once I make that decision, I am pretty loyal to that choice. Second, I like cars that have a bit of a giant-killer reputation. i.e. most of these were known for competing with far more expensive vehicles when it came to performance. And third, I can’t leave anything stock. I just can’t. So here they are in reverse chronological order of when they left the stable:

'00 BMW M coupe When I look back on this list of former cars, I only see one mistake – and unfortunately it was anexpensive one. When it came time (or so I thought) to retire the Porsche from daily driving chores, I searched high & low for a car with character and performance. The 993 topped my list, but since I was thinking of buying a house, that was too big a commitment for now, so I settled my sights on BMW’s quirky M coupe. Although it proved itself a nice daily driver with great low-end torque, and a comfortable and stylish interior, every time I drove it hard I came away disappointed and wanting more. The wonderful drivetrain and brakes were more than offset by the lifeless steering, out of control suspension, lack of rear grip, and awful forward visibility (big A-pillars and a low roofline do not conspire to give an unabated view of an upcoming left-hand apex). Ultimately this car was a disappointment and always felt like an underachiever – the exact opposite of every other car on this list.

Once I bought a 4-car garage with an attached house and got married (yes, it was a busy summer) I needed to get something a little more practical for Home Depot runs and for use as a commuter vehicle for my wife. Since three 2-seaters in the family were one too many, either the 130k mile Porsche, or the 35k mile M coupe had to go. There was no hesitation. The underachieving M coupe was quickly sold and replaced by a 5 speed Subaru Forester 2.5XT in white that we affectionately refer to as the Ballistic Refrigerator.

'69 Alfa Romeo GT Veloce This was a fun little car and represents my first automotive toy. When I bought her, I already had the Porsche 951 as my daily driver and a BMW 2002 was sitting in a garage with a frozen clutch and hadn't run in a couple of years. I really wanted to build a track toy and waffled between restoring the 2002 or buying the GTV. I had loved the latter since I was a kid, and decided it was time for something Italian in my life, so I bought the car. The whole sordid story -- from purchase through mechanical restoration -- is located here.

'76 BMW 2002 My earliest car memories are associated with the forebear of this model. My dad bought a BMW 1600 when I was about 4 years old. Back in those days virtually no one was familiar with BMW automobiles. When the average person saw one on the streets, they typically dismissed it as some boxy-looking ferrin car. Fortunately my dad was a bit more enlightened in this area and bought one that he regularly thrashed to within an inch of its life over the local back roads. When I relocated to Seattle I needed to free up some cash, so I sold the 944 and bought the ’02thinking this would be a fun cheap replacement vehicle until I got back on my feet. Of course since I was replacing a great handling car, I needed to improve things in this area to keep me happy, so I installed a Suspension Techniquessuspension kit that included shorter, stiffer springs, front & rear anti-roll bars, Bilstein shocks, and front camber plates. The car was a little beat up and none-to-quick, but the handling was pretty decent even with its skinny, slippery tires and was a lot of fun. After I settled down in Seattle, I bought the 951 and set the 2002 aside until I bought the Alfa at which point the 2002 became superfluous and was put up for sale.

'86 Porsche 944 I'll never forget my test drive in this vehicle. It crystallized everything I had ever read about performance cars. Sure, it wasn't all that fast and its ultimate cornering limits were not stellar (my modified CRX-Si that it replaced beat it in both areas) but damn if this car didn't talk to you! You knew what was happening with the suspension when attacking a windy road and it always seemed to challenge you, saying “I’m faster on this road than you will ever be.” I used to describe that trait as the arrogance factor and it clearly drove me to improve my skill level, but the car was right – it was always faster than me. But I sure had fun trying to prove it wrong ;-)

'87 Honda CRX-Si If the 944 is the car that showed me how well a car could communicate with its driver, then the CRX-Si is the car that showed me just how much fun driving can be. Even as it came from the factory, the car was a blast: slot car handling, quick, wonderful little motor, and amazing practicality. Of course, as I have established earlier, I can never leave anything stock. This car had Koni shocks and a host of goodies from Jackson Racing, including stiffer springs, anti-roll bars, and their 117hp kit (cam, header, and exhaust). So equipped, this was a little giant-killer of a car. I owned if for seven years, and would have kept it even longer if someone hadn't stolen one night. The police found the remains about a week later.

'85 Honda CRX This was my first new car. I bought it 6 months before the Si version was released and always regretted not waiting for that new model to arrive. I owned it for about 2 years and kept the modifications to a minimum: Ansa exhaust and thicker anti-roll bars. This was a fun car, but it couldn’t hold a candle to the Si in any area.

'74 Renault R17 Gordini Okay, so this was an odd car, and also my first. The Gordini was quite advanced for its day, featuring front-wheel drive, an all-aluminum engine, hemispherical combustion chambers, electronic fuel injection, 5-speed transmission and 107hp out of just 1565cc! Of course these days we scoff at specific outputs that low, but back in ’74 when emission controls were strangling power numbers, this was a pretty stellar figure from a 1.6L engine. I later decided to “do a few things” to the car, including Koni shocks, wider tires, and a full engine rebuild to rally specs that featured high compression pistons, head work, more radical cam, dual Weber 45DCOEs and about 30hp more than stock. A fun car that was set aside when the transmission broke and I was unable to find anyone who could fix it (long story). The car was eventually sold to a gentleman who planned to transplant the engine into his Lotus Europa and show the motor what it was like to push a car rather than pull it.